Sunday, 19 September 2021 | PNS | Dehradun
During the middle of March when the Covid pandemic first started to spread concerns in India, schools and colleges of Uttrakhand followed the lead of other states and shut down all educational institutions. For the past year, the educational institutes had gone online, so much so that in various colleges the technical practical exams were also conducted in online mode. In such unprecedented times, the lack of regular classes, concerns over offline exams, missed syllabus and proper network issues put the students under a lot of stress. The Pioneer spoke to the students regarding their views on the past year of education.
An engineering student from Dehradun on condition of anonymity shared her experience with online practical exams. She stated that her college collected online structures maintenance fees even before the pandemic, so the students were under the impression that their online practical exams would be fair and helpful. On the contrary, the university used online softwares which were not proctored and led the students to easily use unfair means. She added the faculty was not open to suggestions and added, “The colleges not utilising the funds led to the undermining of the practical exams for an engineering student.”
A graduate student from a government university not wanting to disclose her name for fear of the university official shared, “There was a lot of confusion regarding the dates of the exams. Constant postponement and the state university neither deciding on a proper timetable nor sharing it with the students as soon as possible caused us to be in constant state of worry wherein we had to study for the last year’s exams but also start preparing for the next year simultaneously.” While many of the colleges eventually promoted the students, the students were not given timely updates about any decisions which led to a lot of confusion if an offline exam would be conducted for an online year, something which was protested by the Uttrakhand Technical University, Dehradun students in April.
The government had started an initiative called PM e-VIDYA on May 17, 2020 which contained helpful digital platforms where students could download e-textbooks, CBSE podcasts etc. While most of the students were not aware of this platform, others said that while they knew about it they had no knowledge of how to use it. A school student claimed, “During the lockdown, it was tough for me to buy textbooks, had I known about the platform I would have downloaded reliable e-textbooks.”
Currently, certain colleges of Uttrakhand have started their offline classes again after a gap of a year. The students have been given the option to continue their classes online or rejoin offline classes. With growing concerns of a possible third wave of the pandemic, most students are hoping that in the case of yet another year of online classes, the universities would be able to manage online education better and not repeat their past mistakes.
